Two more hours passed since the last fight with the undead. Renfry still hadn’t rejoined us, but the day was getting long. At the pace we were setting, it would take another day to catch up to where Blink had stopped. As it was, I needed to give us a place to stay overnight.

I was worried about being attacked at night and Renfry not finding us. That said, it was time I dug out a simple room. I took a look around and shook my head. There was nothing that would stand out as a landmark—just rolling hills with grass. We hadn’t even seen a tree for hours.

I raised my hand from the lead and heard Irwin call his horse. Then I turned and said. “We are going to shelter here for the night. Irwin, you and I will build an underground room big enough for all of us. Kas, keep an eye out, both for Renfry and an attack.”

Irwin set the brake, climbed down, and said. “I’m not sure we can dig something that big tonight.”

Kasidy laughed. “Oh Irwin, you haven’t seen the tools he uses for this. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could do this alone.”

I shook my head as I got down. She might be right; with my increased mana pool, I might be able to build the whole room. I tied up my horse and pulled my wands from my bag. It was time to work.

I turned to Irwin. “Okay, so here’s what we are starting with. First, we have dirt to stone. Then this one is a ‘dirt to water,’ this one’s a ‘water to steam.’ Last, I have steam to air. It doesn’t work perfectly smoothly, but we should be good when we’re done. The trick is we will have to go down at an angle so the wagon will fit.”

Irwin’s eyes grew slightly in shock. “Those are all powerful wands. Are you sure we have enough uses on them to finish?”

I smiled and nodded. “They have their own uses but will let you use your mana, which is great because we will need it to get through everything. Once the main room is finished, I’ll work on getting a door in place.”

Over the next hour, the two of us worked getting the room big enough. I was happy that we still hadn’t seen any more undead but was getting even more worried that Renfry hadn’t returned.

After two hours of work, both rooms were finished, and we moved the wagon and horses into their underground stable. I was about to seal it up and look for Renfry when I saw him crest the hill. He was walking, holding the leads to his horse. He raised his hand and waved when he saw me.

About ten minutes later, he led his lame horse into the stable. As he removed his saddle, he said. “I forgot that I wasn’t on a trained horse. It takes training with both rider and horse to Charger or Trample. Sadly the active skill will still work, but if the horse hasn’t been through it before, they don’t go along as well. So she sprained her leg. It was my fault.”

I nodded slowly; on Earth, a lame horse in combat was a liability; here, things weren’t the same. I turned into the living part of the rooms and asked. “Irwin, do your healing spells work on horses?”

Irwin looked up from the game board that Kasidy had set up and said. “Yes, do we need to heal up a horse?”

I nodded and grinned. “Our lancer has returned, and he somehow hurt his horse. I would have thought a lancer would have been better than all of us.”

Irwin smiled and got up. I turned to see Renfry shaking his head as he brushed down his mare. He looked right at me and said. “I should have known better, but to my defense, I haven’t ridden in battle for a few hundred years. What’s your excuse for your hair? Shouldn’t a lord not look so rough?”

I shook my head. He was right; I hadn’t taken care of my hair except to cut it off with a knife when it got in the way. My beard was even worse; I had burnt off one side a few months before and tried to even it up.

I laughed. “It could be worse. Someone I know looks like death warmed over.”

Renfry laughed, but Irwin clearly wasn’t sure what to do with this. Sensing easy prey, Renfry smiled at Irwin.

Then my lancer said. “I might look like death warmed over, my lord, but that is just experience. It could be worse. I might be worse than a raw recruit. At least they know how to get on a horse.”

Our young healer had tried to edge his way around the banter. He was moving right to our injured horse. But at Renfry’s prodding, he engaged.

Irwin nodded and smiled. “You’re right! I can’t ride a mare! I haven’t spent much effort learning how to ride a beast. Now I have learned a few things about….”

Kasidy started to play a song right then.

Men forget there are ladies nearby

When they're talking rough, and letting loose their wild side

They don't mean to offend, they're just caught up in the fray

But they need to remember, there are ladies here to stay

Irwin’s face flushed red, and he ducked. Renfry smiled, laughed, patted him on the back, and kept working to feed his horse. I just smiled and walked into the other room. Kasidy kept singing as I walked in.

The boys are in their element, telling tales

Their voices growing louder, their faces turning pale

They're lost in their own world, of rough and tumble fun

But they forget there are ladies near, until they're done

I smiled, shook my head slightly, and sat down. “You’re worse than Renfry.”

Kasidy just nodded and smiled as she finished her verse. “Learned that song from a dwarven woman. Said that the men in the bars were all the same when they started jabbing at each other.”

“You should have seen how red you made Irwin.”

She just winked at me and started to pick notes on her lyre. A few minutes later, the picked at notes picked up speed, and she began to hum a song. I couldn’t pick out what she was singing, but I could tell she was working on a new song.

I got food moving along. Things sure had changed since it was just Blink and me. Cooking had been a bland affair where I ate so that I could keep moving. Now with a full wagon, we had real things to cook, which let me have more fun with the meal prep.

Only a few minutes after food was going, Renfry and Irwin came in from handling the horses. As they came in, Renfry was the first to speak.

The revenant dropped down next to the pot and said. “My lord, I can do this for you. I had thought Kasidy was the one dealing with the meal.”

I laughed and looked over at Kas. “No, we don’t want that to ever happen. Her cooking skill is just high enough to burn water. In the future, we might change up who is cooking, but right now, we all have to do our part to move forward. Besides, I just became a lord, and my cooking is the highest here.”

Renfry nodded as Irwin sat on one of the stone benches we made. Irwin asked, “My lord, why have we not formed a party yet? I could do a much better job healing if I knew who to heal. Also, we wouldn’t have had to worry about Renfry. I doubt that he got far enough away to break the group.”

Renfry nodded and said softly. “With us all part of the Retinue, the party won’t break inside the territory of our lord. It could be extremely valuable as we move on the necromancer.”

I shook my head slowly and sighed. “I’m not used to being in a party. It shows more than I tend to let people know.”

Irwin started to say something when Renfry just held up a hand. “I understand, my lord. It will make things harder tactically as we attack. Only you know what the issue is and if you need to keep us apart in this way…. Remember, we are all sworn to you to keep your secrets.”

With that, my lancer got up. I could tell that he was disappointed but also that he was understanding. We had only known each other for a few days. I looked over at Kasidy; she was the one I had been worried about the most. I hadn’t wanted her to know everything about me, so I didn’t want to answer the question about being level zero.

I sighed but then focused back on the food. As I kept working over the skillet, Irwin started to talk.

He said. “Growing up, I felt like I had two dads. I had one before he went on his last campaign and the other when he returned. I guess it was right up until I was about ten that I wanted to be just like my dad. He was different when he came back. He never told me what happened. I learned that from other people.”

My healer sighed and looked at the ground. “He stood in defense of a valley. Hubbard the Eager had broken away from Lord Cassisu. Cassisu’s second son was leading the troops in the valley. They should have been able to hold, but he got angry or scared. So he ordered my father to use his Last Resort class. Barrett didn’t listen when he was told they would kill everyone. He felt like he would be overrun and that it was required by honor to do so. So he commanded my father, who was part of his father’s retinue at the time.”

Irwin sighed again as a tear started down his face. “My dad was the only one who left the valley alive. He wasn’t the same when he got home. Worse than the battle was that Cassisu cast him out of the retinue for killing his son. Even with the truth sayers finding no lie in my dad. The town I grew up in spoke about him in fear for the first few years. By the time I was 15, it was pity.”

He just sat there after talking. I saw the tears running down his face. I guess he was trying to tell me that I didn’t have anything to fear from them knowing things about me. I just wasn’t sure how they would treat me knowing I was so low leveled.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and nodded. I might be right to worry, or I might be wrong. The gathering of shaman had been right. At some point, I had to trust people. Renfry was right. It would be helpful to know each other’s health. I sent out the party requests to my retinue.

I looked up from the skillet. “Dinner ready. Grab a bowl.”

* * *